Adam's Country House Collections Day II - 10th October 2023

183 553 AN IRISH MID-19TH CENTURY INLAID ARBUTUS AND MARQUETRY KILLARNEY WORK DAVENPORT DESK, the wavy gallery back inlaid with a harp and flanked by animals, above a slopefront panel, with leather inset surrounded by a band of trailing shamrocks, with fitted interior, with arched panel doors to the side, enclosing various short drawers, with solid column supports, on platform base and castors. 101 cm high x 71 cm wide, 71cm deep By the middle of the 18th Century Killarney and its hinterland was emerging as a tourist centre and by 1853 Killarney was accessible by rail, allowing even greater numbers to reach the area. By 1830 Jeremiah O’Connor and others started to pro- duce souvenirs such as chessboards, snuffboxes, card cases - even jewellery. The items were made from a variety of local timbers - arbutus, elm, ash, holly, yew, bog oak and bog yew which grew in abundance on the mountainsides surrounding the Lakes of Killarney. Arbutus and bog oak were used prolifically and became particular to the Killarney wares. As memen - tos of the area, the items mentioned were inlaid with marquetry images of the most popular local sites: Muckross Abbey, Ross Castle, Glena Cottage, Old Weir Bridge, Innisfallen, Aghadoe, Dunloe Castle and Killarney House, several of which can be identified on the present Davenport desk. The images were largely taken from a book of engravings Ireland: Its Scenery, Character &c (1841) by Mr and Mrs S. C. Hall. In addition the wares were decorated with symbolic motifs of shamrock, harp, ivy, ferns, mountain eagles and deer. The sale of these small, portable, often exquisitely carved items was seasonal and by the mid-nineteenth century manufacturers had turned their hand at creating fine quality pieces of furniture such as writing desks, cabinets. Good producers such as James Egan displayed wares at exhibitions as far away as Paris and New York. Around 1860 Egan was commissioned by Lord Castlerosse to manufacture a fine arbutus cabinet and desk as a gift for Queen Victoria which popularised the trade but by 1900 it had declined. € 8,000 - 10,000